Yes. Federal funding for medical research is skewed, failing to focus on diseases that cause the most suffering and death. Something is wrong when NIH funds research at the rate of $1,129 per heart disease death, $723 per stroke death, $4,995 per diabetes death, $4,525 per cancer death, but $31,381 per HIV/AIDS death.
NIH priorities respond well to the political and media attention focused upon AIDS and HIV. But its priorities fall short on diseases that cause the most death or suffering.
NIH allocates $2,100 per year for each HIV/AIDS patient (600,000 to 700,000), $200 per breast cancer patient (2 million), $338 per overall cancer patient (8 million), $40 per heart disease patient (22 million), and $20 per diabetes patient (16 million).
Of the 43 percent of its budget that NIH spends on disease-specific research, heart disease receives $903 million (16.5 percent), diabetes $316 million (5.8 percent), pneumonia and influenza $64 million (1.2 percent), stroke $127 million (2.3 percent) and HIV/AIDS $1.5 billion (27.5 percent).
Cardiovascular disease is America's number-one killer, nearing a million deaths a year, or 22 times more than AIDS (number eight). Cancer kills 13 times more persons than AIDS, and stroke four times as many. But NIH's $1.5 billion in AIDS research is second only to cancer's $2.7 billion. Although AIDS is the leading cause of death for males ages 25 to 44, this selected segment is only 15 percent of the entire population.
Congress gives too much discretion over specific research-funding allocation to NIH and its institute directors. We should provide significant funding for AIDS research, but not to the detriment of other deadly diseases.
Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.)
Member, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education